Object Lessons is a series of short beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of
ordinary things. Few clothing items are as ubiquitous or casual as blue jeans. Yet their
simplicity is deceptive. Blue jeans are nothing if not an exercise in opposites. Americans have
accepted jeans as a symbol of their culture but today jeans are a global consumer product
category. Levi Strauss made blue jeans in the 1870s to withstand the hard work of mining but
denim has since become the epitome of leisure. In the 1950s celebrities like Marlon Brando
transformed the utilitarian clothing of industrial labor into a glamorous statement of youthful
rebellion and now you can find jeans on chic fashion runways. For some indigo blue might be
the color of freedom but for workers who have produced the dye it has often been a color of
oppression and tyranny. Blue Jeans considers the versatility of this iconic garment and
investigates what makes denim a universal signifier ready to fit any context meaning and
body. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
